Our son attended the Kensington campus for preschool a few years ago, and I can't speak highly enough of them. He came here from a very abusive preschool environment with a lot of fear about big groups of kids, and the teachers completely understood and sympathized with him. Every teacher and staff member was caring, compassionate, and creative. The kids adored them and would just flock to them constantly. They had very clear boundaries about what kinds of foods the kids were not allowed to bring to school ("no sugar in the first three ingredients" was the biggest one) and would meet with parents who had problems working with those rules to talk about it. Our son totally worshipped everyone there, and loved the big yard, and the Montessori curriculum, and the teachers, and just ate it all up. It is still his benchmark for measuring any school.
The two things I most appreciated about them were that after I was laid off from my dot-com job, they worked with me to do a work-exchange where I came and cleaned the campus on weekends (at a really good rate that worked out to something like $25/hour) to pay off the school fees and some of the tuition. They even discussed scholarships for the following year, but he didn't go the next year because of the other thing I really appreciated - he had a lot of emotional problems and they were very honest about what kind of support they felt he needed at school and what they were able to offer, and that they weren't able to give him the support they felt he needed and deserved. He ended up going to a therapeutic preschool and getting an IEP, and I don't think he would have the support that he does now in school if it weren't for Growing Light. The head teacher of his class, Maggie, went on to co-run the school (I believe that's right!) and it comes as no surprise to me - she is truly excellent! Someday, I would love to see him be able to return for his later elementary years. Seriously, I think this is the perfect school.
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